[ACCEPTED] Dehhemek; and the Krevian Empire

Species Name: Dehhemek (Sentiens Ferrei)Physiological Description: The Dehhemek (Also called 'The Deh')are a widely variable race of beings containing, at face value, minor similarity to terrestrial Raptors of prehistoric times. Their organic chemistry is carbon-based, but the circumstances of their evolution has given them a naturally iron-based skeleton, which is incredibly heavy, but extremely durable. Lanky arms ending in large, 6-clawed hands (each finger having no nail, but being naturally sharp) are capable of great feats of strength and material manipulation, and sleek, digittrade legs ending in 3-taloned claws are utilized in conjunction with a long, whip-like tail (typically 3-4 feet in length) to achieve incredible sprinting speeds, with 'nude' Dehhemek capable of 50 mile-per-hour sprints. Their musculature is extremely strong to suit itself to this task, and the creatures, growing to be 7'2" - 7'4" on average tend to weigh around 450-500 lbs in 1.0 G. In the modern day, the Dehhemek are born with a variety of designed features, up to and including changes to their bio-chemistry, genetic code, and development. Their bodies are typically lithe in appearance, though they are a bit bulkier than typical humans. Because of genetic and nanomolecular engineering, their bodies have small organs which naturally facilitate the production of pseudo-organic nano-machines, which are typically capable of combating any foreign contaminant, and facilitate the rapid healing of any damage. These semi-organic, programmed components reinforce the skeleto-muscular structure of the Dehhemek, improving the mechanical abilities of their bones, muscles, and strengthening connective tissues and flesh.

The Dehhemek nervous system is also artificially reinforced and improved, their nervous system being vastly different to that of any terrestrial creature, operating more like a wired machine than typical nerves. Reaction speeds and reflexes of Dehhemek are well documented to rival purpose-built machines, and Dehhemek generally have excellent reflex speeds and spacial awareness. Though they have a spine, they have no spinal cord. Rather, they have a set of 5 individual brains, each one performing functions equal to around one half of a human brain. Two are located behind either eye, one is in the base of the head( Top of the spinal column), another inside the spinal column below the collarbone, and still another is inside the torso, behind the stomach. Each of these makes up part of the larger 'brain' containing the consciousness of a Deh, which can be split into separate consciousnesses by interruption of communication between brains. This leads to the ability to survive trauma to the central nervous system that would normally kill another organism by allowing the essence of the Deh to survive, but this same trait has become host to numerous psychological issues internally, and philosophical issues externally. Deh perceive reality in 'high speed', meaning that the events around them take place more slowly (at around 45% speed compared to human perception) as compared to human-like races.

The Dehhemek's compund eyes are large, around the size of a soda-can in diameter. A phased array of thousands of smaller eyes make up each organ, and can each one can switched on and off at semi-will, creating patterns like dilation. 'off' panels are typically white, while 'on' panels turn black. Because only a small area of each eye is ever switched on to focus on an object, they have the appearance of large pupils. An illusion of movement of the pupil is replicated by the structure of photoreceptors switching on and off appear to move in a cohesive fashion. Combined with their facial anatomy being somewhat like a reptile's mixed with a canine's, their short-snouted faces naturally mirror a large amount of human body language in response to things like sadness, joy, and anger. Each eyes is wired to the brain behind it, which interprets and shares the information with the other brain.

The Dehhemek do not have typical ears, but rather sensitive, conical structures extending off the back corners of the heads, which can rotate around and act as directional antennas, sensing air movement. They are sensitive to movements in the air, and all of their sensory data is processed primarily by the nearest brain, near the top of the spinal column, which tends to act as the 'primary' brain, being connected directly to three other central nervous conduits. The Deh's jaw is similar to terrestrial carnivores in some respects, being broad and powerful, while having an obtuse, rounded chin and snout. Their dozens of sharp, long teeth, made from the same material as their bone, tend to be made of an organic-metallic compound produced primarily with iron alloys, which gives them a dark, grey appearance. Each tooth has it's own separate set of muscles, which allow them to move back and forth in the mouth, being able to jut outwards like a Goblin Sharks', and then retract, used for grasping flesh, and then tearing and feeding it into the mouth. This adaption also helps with egg-laying (see below). The teeth tend to fall out at regular intervals, and new ones grow quickly to take their place. The mouth of a Deh contains two 'tongues', extending from the back of the throat. Each tongue is a tool utilized for the stripping of flesh from bone, and are long and thin, covered with very rough 'grating' skin. They are typically used to saw and pull soft tissues away from the harder skeleton, though they also help in the birthing process. In addition, the species carries a par of retractable, insect-like mandibles, which is used to grip and slice flesh. The outer-edges can be used and manipulated inside the throat while being stored to help facilitate the laying of eggs.

Unlike terrestrial animals, most places where Earth biology would cause a 'curve' (such as the hips, pelvis, fingers, hips, or joints like the elbow or knees), Dehhemek biologu instead have rough, sharp edges, a trait associated with the hard cartilidge responsible for the sharpness of their fingers and toes. Their chest sticks out, a larged ridge equivelent to their sternum protruding a small amount as the rest of the upper body slopes back. Their rib cage is smaller, and fused into overlapping plates of iron-bone, which protects their combined heart-lung organ, as well as their stomach, spleen, and intestine equivalents (they excrete waste material from their mouth; Dehhemek have notriously rancid breath). Their flesh is covered in inter-locking, flexible scale of mostly iron-alloys, making them somewhat more flexible, if lighter and less strong bones. Dehhemek are typically colored all shades of red, orange, brown, and grey, with albinism being rare. Despite incredible medical technologies, their rapid development and metabolisms mean that, despite reaching breeding age quickly, they live, even with medical assistance, rarely past the age of 110. Dehhemek are also known for a lack of endurance ability.

Biological History: Excerpt from DunJgurnnelPrau's 'History of the Species' Preface:

"The Dehhemek, or 'Deh', are a race of reptilians from a small, clay-desert planet orbiting a small, red star. Their history was filled with violence, with often ruthless and vicious fauna shaping their evolutionary path. The Deh evolved over time as pack-hunters, traveling in groups of 20-50 individuals. Their females could produce an egg every month, which was then lain and left for the strongest males to fight over. The Deh would be fertilized, and reach maturity in around 3 months, at which point they would hatch. Their ravenous metabolism would lead them to full adulthood within their first two years of life, at which point the 'male' could fertilize lain 'female' eggs, which would also start laying eggs before fully grown. In this way, a lucky, healthy could produce up to 200 or more offspring in her life, though statistically only 2 or 3 of those would survive to see their third year. Their home world of Cresper was excruciatingly harsh, and while other species simple got bigger and stronger, the Deh thrived through pack-hunting and their improved brains, with them having three 'brains' (simpler, more rather than their planet's usual 'two' for land vertebrate')...'

Dehhemek, in their Space and Information ages, began an early push to improve their medical fields, resulting in the current iteration of the race being extremely different in genetic make-up from the species they once were, such as the changes made to the biochemical make-up, and the refinement, growth, and addition of organs, such as the extended and vastly streamlined brain system.

Social Structure: The Dehhemek naturally organize into packs of up to 50 to 200 members, often based on interwoven 'friendships, between members. Each member of the society typically belongs to anywhere from 1 pack (usually children), to sometimes as many as 7 or 8. A pack can typically expect up to 20-80 offspring per year, though only 10% remain a member of the same pack by the end of that year. 'Female' Dehhemek lay eggs through the throat, and males fertilize it through spraying glands in the lower jaw. Children are regarded as largely expendable, and while eggs are often regarded with the same are a human may give a potted plant, and a child like a pet, Dehhemek society still encourages placing an incredible amount of resources into ensuring that youth can mature into functioning adults.

Dehhemek society is largely merit-based, technocratic, and capitalist, and there is no apparently rigid class system to speak of. Neither Gender is weaker or biochemically much different from the other, so the constructs of gender and sexuality are non-things in the culture and social life of the species. Engineers and Scientists are generally regarded as nobles in their own right, and being mechanically inclined is usually an expectation amongst the social groups.

Dehhemek have a name constructed of numerous parts:

The first is a child name, for use by packmates, usually short and non-descriptive, like 'Jun'. The second name is usually the title of the pack it was born into, like 'Ruagh'. JunRaugh would e the name f a hatchling, for example.

The 'child name' is usually abandoned by a child once they've grown into an adult. The name can change several times, but usually is set by the age of eight years, and the names typically have to do with the most preferred activity or dream of the individual. For instance, a young Deh that wished to be an explorer would change their name to 'SeugheraRaugh'. Sometimes this name may also describe a significant event or achievement, such as 'Survived a great battle (Unst)', or 'Protected a mother (Beruskatat)'.

Different surnames are then earned over life for different achievements. For instance, a politician would usually make their title (like Mayor, or 'Yunnsa') part of their name. So if SeugheraRaugh became a politician, his name may become SeugheraRaughYunnsa.

The actual name that an individual may wish to be called varies, but is usually a shortening of the listed named. So SeugheraRaughYunnsa may be known to friends as 'Seurannsa', which he may perfer to be called.

Native Culture: Excerpt from DunJgurnnelPrau's 'History of the Species':" Dehhemek, and thus Krevian, culture finds its roots in the nature of the species and their home planet. On their home world, the Dehhemek were often at odds with nature. Massive super-predators ruled their world, while the bottom for the food chain was ruled by a species of rabbit-like creatures which roved in hordes, devouring fields of rapidly-growing moss and fungus, which grew in massive fields and colonies over the surface of their world, and grew into thick mounds near water-sources. Life was often extremely short and violent, and the chance of a newborn living to adulthood was less than one percent. For this reason, almost all species on Cresper were either super-predators at the top of their food-chain, or minor predators who reproduced rapidly. With the eventually rise of intelligence, the Deh would become both of these.

When the chances of a child surviving to adulthood skyrocketed, the value of individual life plummeted. Since children were raised by the whole pack rather than biological parents, communities would suddenly become bloated. Elder members would often find all but the most talented or intelligent younger members to be expendable, and a society based on the individual showing the highest possible merits quickly followed. If a Deh was not smart or skilled, then they were often pushed down to a level of indentured servitude. Because life had no inherit value in their society, due to religion and thus the concept of souls or the divine never rising, war was often raged by a mass of infantry charging the enemy until they were overwhelmed in bodies. Life had so little value, in fact, it was believed that every individual had to constantly ‘earn their keep’ from childhood by doing whatever tasks they could, and the concept of teaching and handing down skills from one generation to the next was highly revered.

Despite the low value of life, love and familial bonds are still common. ‘Love’ was seen as the conditional or unconditional mutual affection between any number of individuals, though their society had a special tern for a love enjoyed most intensely by two close friends, and despite being a sex-less society where both male and female were minimally different, this was the closest concept they held to ‘Romantic Love’. Though ‘it takes a village’ was common in raising children, it was also not uncommon for the father to take a special interest in an egg he had fertilized, and retain an attraction to the child after birth. Occasionally, if a child was successfully birthed, the mother of the child may also partake in becoming a parent. Usually, a mother would only do so if the child proved to be exceptionally strong and healthy. The rest of the pack or later village would often partake in raising the child up soon after. A strong emphasis was placed on work ethic, and contributing both to the well-being of the familial unit and pack, as well as to achieving personal glory and happiness. Wisemen and leaders were especially revered in these regards...

The Deh belief system is a philosophic, not religious, one. Deh beliefs typically include the idealism of ‘force of will’, where willpower, applied intelligently and in great amounts, is capable of accomplishing any task. Most importantly, the Deh believe that the will of an individual can be used to self-correct one’s nature, and bring a balance on the Inward (concerning the self) and Outward (concerning others) forces. Ultimately, Deh society carries three main values: Willpower, Wisdom, and The Pursuit of Balance and Personal Happiness. It is believed... that death is not only eternal, but a positive thing. The Dehhemek understand death now simply as a respite, a final, dreamless rest for a long-hard fought life. The Deh value leaving one’s mark on society, even if in small circles (which is the only practical way for most), so that their lives may cause a ripple effect, even if tiny, throughout the universe long after they’ve passed. Death is embraced as finality, and something that the individual should accept when the time comes. The dead are typically mourned, and often cannibalized after death, so that their bodies may provide one final nourishment to their loved ones after death. This is more formality and tradition now, but was an important survival tactic and bonding exercise early in their history."

Factions: 'Krevia', by and far the largest of many Dehhemek nations, has a population numbering in the quadrillions. Numerous smaller nations also exist independently, both on and off the homeworld.

Krevian-controlled planets feature rapidly-growing, landmass-spanning cities, and each planet is typically host to as many as 60-120 Billion~ Dehhemek.

Krevian politics are noted to be an incredible mess; as is normal with Dehhemek societies at large. Political matters are known to often take many years to resolve, and centralized government, if it can be called that, are rarely able to, with their millions of senators, mayors, and representatives, ever come to a consensus about anything. Attemping to become a politician often requires education is 'Political Engineering', which often obfuscate the complicated realm of Krevian Democratic systems even further.

Dehhemek culture often dictates dissent from large, powerful government, and attempts by both the Senate and the Technate* to concede result in most government being run locally. Fortunately, the widely variable, and often volatile spectrum of political ideas are often well placated enough to save the intergrity of the Empire, though attempting to get public support for nearly anything is incredibly difficult.

Massive public service projects, government institutions, and even military campaigns are often cut loose because of a lack of public will to support these endeavors, as well as dissent with the government's own body. Attempting to make war, colonize planets, or even quell dissent among domestic insurrection is often met with public apathy, or worse, protest. Attempting anything that would cause public outcry is at best a bureaucratic nightmare; at worst political suicide.

*Governing body in charge of the state's production, use, and funding of technology and infastructure

Technology:Rend Drives – The central component of Krevian space travel is the Rend Drive. It is an economical drives which functions by using artificial gravity waves to warp space. It does this by energizing a small circuit, which then creates a specific shaped-lance or funnel of radiation, known by the Dehhemek as Zion-Point Radiation. This radiation, in specific amounts and frequencies, can affect the fabric of space-time, causing it to either expand, contract, stretch, or trade places with adjacent space. Refined, this technology allows for the use of anti gravity systems. More impressively, it can be used in the last context to cheaply propel a ship at what are effectively superluminal speeds, by causing a ship to simply trade an equal amount of space with the space in front of it. The change is almost instantaneous, and can be done many tens of billions of times per second. More advanced drives rely on their ability to ‘hiccup’, that is, effectively reset themselves to be able to ‘trade space’ again. Rend Drives have allowed for vast swathes of the Local Cluster to become easily populated by the Krevians. Modern day, almost all vehicles and many other technologies use Rending Circuits in some way.

Commonly, Rending ‘rings’ are typically aligned in large barrels, and used to propel often quite-massive projectiles to relativistic velocities, often putting in less energy than the resulting projectiles impact. The general flexibility of Rend drives allows them to be able to cause any air or space born vehicle to make massive accelerations and decelerations with great ease, with aircraft able to stop on a dime, make a 180-degree turn, and zip away at super-sonic velocities in under a second being the norm, and one of the most obvious and extreme extents of Rending technology, and all ships, even larger ones, exhibit an extreme agility at STL, and an ability to turn sharply at FTL speeds without stopping.

Repulse Fields - Whereas Rend Drives utilize an understanding of gravity to warp space, Repulse Fields rely on an equal mastery of the other three fundamental forces: Those of the Electromagnetic, and Strong and Weak Nuclear forces. Repulse fields operate by a series of generation circuits being powered, and emitting a special field. This field causes most particles to suddenly become very rigid and repulsive to each other, and to shake wildly and violently. The energy field is capable of turning away large amounts of light, which can cause objects with the fields to shimmer or gleam in direct light.

Repulse Fields work simply by controlling a mesh of particles, and equally distributing energy over them until they form a thick barrier, which reacts violently almost all outside forces. In this way, a Repulse Field reacts to anything by hitting it back with an equal amount of energy. For example, if a 10-ton projectile hits a Repulse shield with the force of a gigajoule, then the Repulse Field will simply generate a force of one gigajoule moving in the exact opposite direction at the exact same time, thus cancelling both forces out. It reacts this way even to light, causing the aforementioned shimmering effect. Anything on the other end of a repulse-field often seems darker or murkier, due to less light getting through, whilst the field itself will shimmer like glass. When it is applied within a quarter of a millimeter to a hull, it can give the appearance that the craft is actually shimmering or gleaming.

Nanomolecular Fabrication – The Dehhk are masters of material sciences, and have been masters of molecular and often even atomic engineering for centuries. They have used their knowledge of microscopic and molecular structures, as well as advanced and precise computer and energy technologies to mass-produce materials and structures designed at this level. It is due to this mastery that they are able to create nanomachines, which are used to repair both their biological bodies, and which travel along the circuits of their machinery to repair them as well. This materials super-science allows them to create extremely strong, yet light-weight metals, and at the same time, extremely strong and dense ones for higher cost. Almost all technologies the Krevian use involve being constructed somewhere at a nanoforge. The Use of this nanoforging allows for extremely flexible and robust, precise designs.

Genetic Manipulation and Augmentation - Krevians have a long history of trying to outfit themselves to be stronger and smarter than the previous generation. With every new hatching of them, comes a line of ‘upgrades’ in the form of Genetic Augmentations. The Dehhk have been slowly manipulating the genetics of every next generation, often stream-lining and improving current systems of regeneration, growth, and most importantly, ability. The Dehhk muscle structure is an extremely efficient, almost artificial seeming setup of muscles, designed to be extremely strong and durable. They bare little resemblance to the muscle of any Earth vertebrate, as do their strong and flexible iron skeletons. The average Dehhk, who stands at 7’2” in height (compared to their ‘natural’ height of 5’7”) is capable of benching-pressing several thousand pounds of weight easily. Those who have been further augmented with things like synthetic muscles of nanofiber can easily pull even stronger feats, though at the cost of increased metabolism.

The Dehhk have also augmented their reproductive rate; females now on average lay one egg per week, and their young now grow from fertilized egg to reproducing adult in as little as a year. The amount of eggs fertilized is dependent entirely on how large the potential for growth of Krevia or the species is. At most times, it goes by a planet-by-planet basis, where populations are typically kept large, but stable, though a surge of growth is common if a nearby planet is undergoing terraforming actions.

Most importantly, the Deh have added a pair of additional brain-organs to their base three, and all of them have been modified to have a higher capability than normal. Generally, two modified Deh brains are equal in mental-capacity to a single, unmodified human brain. The five different central nervous systems often split tasks equally for maximum efficiency.

The Krevian Military's primary land-based force are known as Krevian 'Rangers', an all-purpose mechanized infantry force numbering roughly 1.1-billion soldiers, part of a total of 4.9-billion-strong military including all branches, Naval, Ranger, and Planetary Militia. The Krevians prefer to keep a military that is is small relative to their population, and kept well-maintained, equipped, and harshly trained. Rangers typically deploy power-armor of various sizes and purposes to help them achieve their objectives.